Present-day motor vehicle finishes consist in general of a multi-layer coating consisting of an anti-corrosive electrodeposition primer coating, a filler coat (primer surfacer coat) and, applied thereto, a top coat consisting of a color- and/or effect-imparting base coat and a protective, gloss-bestowing clear coat.
To produce two-tone multi-layer coatings, it is known to apply the color-imparting paint coat from two coating agents (coating compositions) of different colors, whereby an overlapping zone is deliberately created between the two regions of different colors. The overlapping zone is visible through a clear coat layer that is applied later.
If, instead of an overlapping zone, a sharp separation between the two regions of different colors is to be achieved, a conventional process used for forming a two-tone multi-layer coating provides for the masking of a single-tone multi-layer base/coat clear coat coating which leaves an unmasked region of the coating to be coated with a second color coating. This region then is further coated with a second color-imparting top coat or a second color- and/or effect-imparting base coat and a clear coat and then the mask is removed. An unwanted perceptible edge forms along the masking, which sharply delimits the regions of different colors from one another.
It would be desirable to have a process for forming a two-tone multi-layer coating that does not result in a visible overlapping zone or a perceptible edge between the colors.